Former President Donald Trump moved a step closer to a potential multi-billion dollar windfall on Friday, as investors in a special acquisition company approved a merger taking his social media venture public at a substantial $6 billion valuation.
Shareholders of Digital World Acquisition Corp, the SPAC acquiring Trump Media & Technology Group and its Truth Social platform, voted to approve the long-delayed merger deal. The transaction could deliver around $3.6 billion to Trump’s majority stake in the company.
The looming cash infusion comes at a critical juncture for the former president, who was hit late last month with a $454 million judgment in a New York civil fraud case. Trump is also facing a raft of other legal battles that have raised questions about his financial standing.
While Friday’s shareholder vote marked a pivotal milestone, the road ahead remains uncertain. Several lawsuits are aiming to block the merger from being finalized, including cases from DWAC’s former CEO and ex-Trump associates involved in Truth Social’s launch who claim they are owed more equity.
Even if those hurdles are cleared quickly, allowing completion of the $1.3 billion PIPE fundraising tied to the merger next week, Trump will not have immediate access to the windfall. He agreed to a six-month lockup preventing the sale of his stake in the newly public company.
Still, the Trump Media valuation reflects immense investor enthusiasm despite Truth Social’s relatively small active user base compared to Elon Musk’s X. Current trading prices peg the merged firm’s potential worth anywhere between $6-9.4 billion, nearly half of X’s valuation.
For Trump, the upside could prove vital as he mounts another Presidential bid while burning through cash to finance legal defenses across multiple federal and state cases. Truth Social itself has struggled, losing over $30 million in its first two years of operations relying on debt funding.
The DWAC deal promises at least a $300 million lifeline for the fledgling platform Trump launched after being banned from mainstream social networks in the wake of the January 6th Capitol riots. Whether the cash influx can turbocharge Truth Social’s growth and make it a long-term financial winner for Trump remains to be seen.
But for now, the former president is tantalizingly close to capitalizing on investors’ belief in his brand power and ability to monetize his devout following through social media, even as legal and financial pressures mount.
